“Jon Jones is ranked No. 3 pound-for-pound in the (UFC). F—ing ridiculous, embarrassing, stupid, know-nothing-about-f—ing-fighting ranking of all f—cking time,” an incensed Dana White told Kevin Iole in an interview last August before Jon Jones had defeated a 42-year-old, way-over-the-hill Stipe Miocic at UFC 309. As you can imagine, the head honcho was incensed upset over ‘Bones’ being ranked #3 P4P in the division. This was a pretty reasonable ranking considering the GOAT contender had not fought for three years before beating Ciryl Gane in late 2022. But White was incensed nonetheless and vowed to change the way the rankings are done.
And guess what, the Boston native has come through on his promise, which has really pleased Jon Jones. The UFC CEO took to Instagram on Wednesday and revealed the UFC has “started to work on some innovations with Meta around a new fighter rankings system that will debut later this year.”
And ‘Bones’ couldn’t help but laugh at White getting the whole ranking system changed because of him. “It’s undebatable, tell these clowns Dana ,” Jones commented on a post on the topic by MMA media outlet Happy Punch on Instagram. We do not know many details about the new ranking system but it seems the UFC will no longer rely on a jury made of media members to do the rankings. Moreover, Meta’s partnership with the promotion goes further than the rankings as the tech giant is now the official fan technology partner of the UFC. But should Jones be happy with these changes?
It’s not like any objective system would have ranked him over Islam Makhachev and Alex Pereira, who were then ranked #1 and #2 in the division. Both Makhachev and Pereira had been far more active than ‘Bones’, and beaten opponents via finishes. And since all of these things are criteria for pound-for-pound, it doesn’t matter whether a human or an AI made the rankings. Jones wasn’t going to be #1!
But the new rankings are supposed to take input from the fans. Won’t that help Jones rank higher? Well, no. While most fans may begrudgingly acknowledge Jones as the GOAT, many do not seem to like him. So that wouldn’t help him either. The relationship between the UFC and Meta may be new, but it is hardly surprising for those who have been following the post-2024-election developments.
What is Dana White’s relationship with Meta?
Dana White, of course, is on Meta’s board of directors. Last year, after Donald Trump was elected President, the Mark Zuckerberg-led tech behemoth appointed the UFC CEO as a seat on its board, in part to deal with the ‘pressure’ various governments are putting on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other Meta products.
“Part of the conversation I had with him around joining our board was, OK, we have a lot of governments and folks around the world putting a lot of pressure on our company, and we need some strong people who are going to basically help advise us on how to handle some of these situations,” he said.
But the real reason for this move was because Meta allegedly wanted to suck up to President Trump, who had openly threatened to go after the company for allegedly censoring and de-platforming him way back in January 2021. This is why many feel that having White, one of Trump’s closest friends, on its board was a smart business move aimed at pacifying the sitting President. But it is good to see something good come out of White and Meta’s partnership, after all. What do you think about Jon Jones’ reaction to Dana White announcing its new rankings system?
The post “Tell These Clowns” – Jon Jones Gives Verdict on Dana White’s Move to Seal ‘Undebatable’ Spot With New UFC Rankings System appeared first on EssentiallySports.
